The Biographical Dictionary of America/Bass, Edward

​BASS, Edward, first bishop of Massachusetts, and 7th in succession in the American episcopate, was born at Dorchester, Mass., Nov. 23, 1726. He was graduated from Harvard college in 1744, and for several years occupied himself as a teacher. He was licensed as a Congregationalist preacher, but in 1752, he accepted the tenets of the established church, and in May of that year was ordained deacon at the chapel of Fulham Palace, by the bishop of London; he received his ordination as a priest at the hands of the same prelate. May 24, 1752. He was sent as a missionary to Newburyport, Mass., by the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and became incumbent of St. Paul's church. At the opening of the revolutionary war, he, in deference to the public sentiment, omitted the prayer for the King, but when the Continental Congress requested that clergymen no longer use the royal collects, he closed his church for twelve months, and did not open it even then till urged by the sight of his congregation gradually going over to the dissenters. He refused to read the Declaration of Independence in church, and called himself a "Tory, and inimical to the liberties of America." but notwithstanding his efforts to make his action clear with the society his past due stipend was refused and his name dropped from the roll. Finding him driven from the support of the society, his friends in America nominated him for bishop. The first election was not recognized, but after another attempt he was consecrated, May 7, 1797, first bishop of Massachusetts, by Bishops White, Provoost and Claggett. His jurisdiction was later extended to New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. He was awarded the degree of D.D. by the Pennsylvania university in 1789. He published several sermons and addresses, and a pamphlet on his connection with the Venerable society. He died at Newburyport, Mass., Sept. 10, 1803.